TIM NIELSEN: My name is Tim Nielsen, and I'm interviewing my mom, Mary Jean. And your ancestry is with the Mormon pioneers that came across the plains.
MARY NIELSEN: Yes, they joined a church back in Massachusetts. But when they moved to Nauvoo, my great grandfather Alma Helaman Hale was just a baby. They made a little bed for him up in the top of their covered wagon. So when the wagon was going, it would rock him to sleep. And if you know who Joseph Smith is — he used to come into their house quite often because Alma's father was the bishop of the Navajo Ninth Ward. Alma used to sit on his lap and feed him popcorn.
TIM NIELSEN: So tell us a little bit about yourself. You grew up in a little store in Hyde Park.
MARY NIELSEN: A little grocery store. And that's where I was raised.
TIM NIELSEN: Like the house is literally attached —
MARY NIELSEN: — to the grocery store.
TIM NIELSEN: And the grocery store had a meat section. Your dad was, like, a butcher.
MARY NIELSEN: He was. Yup, he had one of those big old wooden meat blocks. He used to cut up deer when it was deer hunting. We had a quick freeze cold locker; then people would rent a locker.
TIM NIELSEN: Did you have to work at the store?
MARY NIELSEN: Absolutely. Stocked shelves, swept the floor, mopped the floor. And I knew how to count change back. I mainly worked as a cashier. And something my dad and mom taught me in the store was to be honest and truthful.
TIM NIELSEN: And were your mom and dad religious?
MARY NIELSEN: Oh, yes. We always went to church and just remember to stay close to God and Heavenly Father. To grow up in the church, having my mom and dad there with me meant a lot. And it's stayed with me. I hope that I'm a good example to all of you for as long as I live.
TIM NIELSEN: With my children, it made me appreciate you and Dad more. And it made me regret having given you such a hard time growing up.
MARY NIELSEN: You were a pretty good kid.
TIM NIELSEN: What about when I broke my back drinking and driving? Did you think I was gonna die?
MARY NIELSEN: No, no. It's where prayer comes into the picture. So I remember one time when I was in the hospital with you in Ogden, and they couldn't operate on your back, which had a crushed vertebrae because the seat belt had crushed your intestine. So they operated on that first and then it was important to get your back fixed. But they couldn't do it until your intestine started moving.
TIM NIELSEN: And we had one thing that we could watch: the tube and a machine.
MARY NIELSEN: That was draining something out of your stomach.
TIM NIELSEN: If nothing happened in this tube, then nothing could be done from my back.
MARY NIELSEN: Right.
TIM NIELSEN: But nothing was happening. Nothing was moving.
MARY NIELSEN: So we prayed, you and I.
TIM NIELSEN: You said the prayer. I asked you to say the prayer.
MARY NIELSEN: Yeah. Almost immediately after ....
TIM NIELSEN: As soon as you said amen. It was like someone flipped a switch or turned on a hose.
MARY NIELSEN: They operated on your back next morning and put you back together.
TIM NIELSEN: I don't think it's a coincidence. And I think that God has a lot to do with your life and has been a big part of your life because a lot of God being in my life has come from you and your life.
